Author: P.M. Elton

Summary from Goodreads:
A series of stories about some of the state parks in Virginia and some of the unexplained things that happen. Part ghost stories, part history, this book recounts the experiences from those people have noticed the strange things happening around them.

This book was an interesting read.

Personal Review:
I picked up this book while we were visiting one of the State Parks earlier this year because it sounded interesting. No matter on whether you believe the ghost aspect or not, there is information about the state parks and I found this book full of history about the parks. I love hiking in the parks and it is even more fun when you know a little bit about the history of the parks!

This book was a fairly quick read for me. I am going to be using it as part of Mount TBR challenge and as part of the book ‘set in your home state’ challenge on Pop Sugar. (While ND will always be home, this has been my home for the last few years!)

I recommend this book, especially around the Halloween time of year.

Happy Reading!

Bout of Books: Villian Challenge

Hi Everyone!

Stopping by with today's challenge. This time is hosted by Bingeing on Books. 

Here is the challenge for today:

• Pick villains from two different books that you would love to see fight each other. It can be from any genre and it doesn't even have to be a physical fight. It could be a verbal one as well.
• Give a short reason why you think these villains should fight each other

You don't have to have a blog to do this challenge. You could tweet it or instagram it or even leave it in the comments. If you do tweet it, don't forget to mention me (@bingeingonbooks) and use the hashtag #villainmashup. 


Answer:
I would love to see the Wicked Witch of the West (and the Flying Monkeys) take on Lord Voldemort!

Reasoning:
Both have magical abilities, but more so-they are two of my favorite villians from stories I enjoy. I just would love to see how they interacted and if it enhanced either of the two stories.


Happy Reading!

Bout of Books: The Rainbow Challenge

Hi Everyone!

Just stopping by with an update for Bout of Books today. The challenge is being hosted by the Ranty Runt of a Reader and is the rainbow challenge.

For the cover challenge, collect books from your bookshelf (physical or virtual) and make yourself a rainbow using the covers. A rainbow is ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet).

Here is my attempt at the challenge:

For the author challenge, use authors surnames to complete an acrostic poem style rainbow of ROYGBIV – you can only use surnames and no prefixes (eg. Vincent van Gogh could be used for a G, not a V). Any ‘writer’ is acceptable, for example, playwrights, poets and comic book/graphic novel authors)

R – Ransom, Riggs

O – Orwell, George

Y – Yoon, Nicola

G – Gessner, Marina

B – Bareilles, Sara

I – Issacson, Walter

V – Vaughan, Brian K

Happy Reading!

Bout of Books: Would You Rather

Hi Everyone!

Just stopping by with one of the 'challenge posts' for Bout of Books!

Would you rather:
Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?

Answer: I would rather have someone dog ear my pages. At least that wouldn't stain! 

Would you rather:
Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?

Answer: I would love to meet the author of my choice! The author would probably be Ann M. Martin. I have admired her since I was a little girl and that is part of the reason I am excited to go to Book Con this year!

Would you rather:
Never be allowed in a book store again or never be allowed in a library again?

Answer: Bookstore! I would die without the library. Thankfully for me there is a large selection of books at my library. I rarely can't get a book from there and if I cannot, they have InterLibrary Loan! 

Would you rather:
Have to choose one of your favorite characters to die in their book or have to pick one of your favorite couples to break up in their book?

Answer: I guess break up! In the other case, they would not be alive anymore and that would be really sad. But I am still sad about the break up too! 

Would you rather:
Be required to read Twilight once a year for the rest of your life or The Scarlet Letter once a year for the rest of your life?

Answer: I have read both and I don't know that I would love to read either every year for the rest of my life. This is hard. If I really had to choose, I guess Scarlet Letter.

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2016 Bookish Resolutions

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you are easing back into the swing of work and/or school and the real world. I always enjoy the holidays, but sometimes it is hard to get back into the swing of things. Thankfully for me, the Top Ten Tuesday for this week is about goals. If there is one way I can motivate myself it is through establishing some milestones to reach for throughout the year!

I have broken my 2016 Book related goals into three categories: 

Reading Goals
Read at least 12 books for the Mount TBR Challenge.
Read at least 12 books for #RockMyTBR Challenge.
Read at least 12 books for the I love libraries Challenge.
Read enough books to complete the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.
Read enough books to complete the 2016 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge.
Read as many of the books that I own as possible.
Buddy Read at least 4 books and overall read at least 52 books for the Good Read Challenges.

Blogging Goals
Try some new things with my book blog. (For example- host a cover reveal, participate in a traveling book exchange, create a new discussion thread, expand book reviews, etc.) 

Event/Social Goals
Attend Book Con and Have Fun!
Continue making new friends who enjoy reading as much as I do!


Do you set goals for the year? If so, what types of goals? I’d love to hear what your plans are for the upcoming year! Here’s wishing you all the best in 2016.

Happy Reading!

Book Review: First and Then

 Author: Emma Mills
 
Summary from Goodreads:
This book was advertised to me as a Friday Night Lights meets Pride and Prejudice. I haven't seen Friday Night Lights, but I do know it is about football and that was the case here. In this book, the two characters that are at the center of this book are Devon and Ezra. While it seems like Devon does not have any interest in Ezra at first, things start to change over time as Ezra takes an interest in helping Foster (Devon's cousin who lives with them). The book has romance and intrigue. The cover was adorable and I enjoyed reading this book.

Personal Review:
I have to be honest, I was drawn to this book by the cover. Once it was marketed as a P&P type story, I was sold. The book met my expectations in both of those regards. I appreciated the story line and how at first Ezra resembled some of the traits of Mr. Darcy-snobbish, stuck up, and even arrogant at times.

I also appreciated that Devon was very Elizabeth like in her ways. She had already made up her mind about how she felt (and in this about Cas), that she seemed to be ignorant to what was going on around her. It took some outside meddling on behalf of her cousin (soon to be adopted brother), Devon to get things moving for this couple.

I like the romance and the story. I enjoyed the tie in with football and the modern day story. The plot was a bit predictable, but I often find that those are some of my favorite reads. I would recommend this book to others looking for a cute, quick read.

Happy Reading!

January Rewind

Hi Everyone,

I have seen a few people do a monthly recap or rewind about what happened on their blog during the last month. I thought that this might be a fun new addition to what I have on the blog, so I am going to try to recap January 2016 here:

Fittingly enough, I read 16 books in January! I won’t link to the reviews directly, but if you head over to the side you can sort my posts by month.

Specifically, I read:
6 Books for Review
4 Books I Own
4 Library Books
2 Extra Books that were based on reading with my hubby!

They fell into the following groupings for my Challenges:
I love Libraries-4 Books
Mt. TBR-3 Books
#RockmyTBR-1 Book
Popsugar-4 books for 5 categories
Read Harder-1 Book

Highlights of the month included:
Participating in Bout of Books 15!
Participating in the 24in48 Reading Challenge
Hosting a cover reveal for a DC author
Meeting Gretchen Rubin (of The Happiness Project)
Connecting with new friends through twitter and other places!

I have to say, it turned out to be a pretty good month despite getting bronchitis and walloped by snow storm Jonas.  I hope that you had a successful month of reading! What’s in your que for February?

Happy Reading!